Friday, November 9, 2018

ELECTION 2018: Medicaid Expansion, Minimum Wage Increases Lead Midterm Results

From Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity

Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives this week while Republicans picked up at least two Senate seats, but voters also weighed in on a host of ballot initiatives on Medicaid, the minimum wage, and other poverty-related issues – mostly in conservative-leaning states.

Initiatives to expand Medicaid passed in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah, while voters in Missouri and Arkansas approved substantial increases to their minimum wages. And in Florida – despite Republican victories in both marquee statewide races – progressives scored a major victory with a ballot measure to restore voting rights to more than a million Floridians previously convicted of a felony. We rounded up more from election results on poverty-related issues in our latest Out of the Spotlight blog post